Discussions on various subjects ranging from water conservation, weight loss, overall health, legal issues and questions and anything else that tickles my fancy.
I also maintain our website: www.hawgwash.net if you want to see what we as a business have to offer.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Tonight's subject is intended for fun and more trivial facts that you can bore your friends with. We celebrate Halloween in the United States every October 31st. On this day, people dress up in costumes, have parties and go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. We all hear about witches, ghosts and goblins and listen to very scary stories about ghosts and hauntings. We may even go to a "Haunted House" to get frightened by things that go bump in the dark.

The big question here is, Halloween, what is so great about it? For some, Halloween is the highlight of their year. Some people will get married on October 31 because it is Halloween. OK, so what is so great about it? What are the origins and why do we still celebrate?

Depending on where you look or who you talk to, Halloween either originated with the Christian tradition of celebrating the lives of Christian martyrs or, Halloween originated with the Celtic people of pre-medieval Europe. The word "Halloween" has its origins in the Catholic Church. The word comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve, All Hallows Day or All Saints Day. Pope Boniface IV established May 13, 609 AD as a day of celebratory remembrance for all the Church's martyrs. Pope Gregory III later changed the date of remembrance to November 1, when he dedicated the chapel in St. Peter's Basilica to "all saints", hence November 1 became All Saints Day.

If you opt for Halloween originating from Celtic tradition, the Celts divided their year into halves: the "light half" and the "dark half". The "light half" covered basically Spring and Summer, when the days were longer, and the "dark half" covered Autumn and Winter, when the days were shorter. The Celts celebrated the end of the light half of the year with a festival of "Samhain" which became a fixed date in the Julian calendar of November 1st. The name Samhain is derived from Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end". This time of year was the Celtic New Year.

One belief is that on the last day of the Celtic year, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. They believed this was their only hope for afterlife. Since the living did not want to be possessed by the dead, on the night of October 31st, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes (making the homes cold and undesirable) and then they would dress up in all types of ghoulish costumes and parade around the neighborhood, possibly trying to frighten away the spirits looking to posses them. The custom of Halloween was brought to America by the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing Ireland due to the potato famine.

The custom of trick-or-treating may have had it origins from the medieval practice of souling, when poor people would go door to door, receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day. Currently, Trick-or-Treating may carry an implied threat that if the children do not receive "Treats" (candy), they would perform a "trick" or some kind of mischief to the homeowner or on the home owner's property. The practice of Trick-or-treating does not appear to have become very popular until the 1930's.

Halloween costumes traditionally are of ghosts, witches, ghouls, goblins, or skeletons - basically supernatural figures. Over time, the types of costumes extended to include popular fictional and real characters, or the alter-ego of the person creating the costume. Modern costumes worn by today's trick-or-treaters are now intended for entertainment and amusement. Sometimes they scare neighbors and often compete with others for the most original, scary, ugly, funny, or pretty costume.

Overall, Halloween is a time that reconfirms the social bond of a neighborhood (because you walk from door to door visiting your neighbors) and allows you to interact with strangers which you may not have opted to do on a "normal" day. The real value in Halloween comes not necessarily from winning a costume contest, but from interchange with strangers and neighbors, thus exorcising our fear of strangers, and reaffirms our social bonds with the people in our neighborhood. This time of year may be the only time we actually go around and talk to all of our neighbors.

So, enjoy your Halloween evening and have fun reconnecting and possibly frightening people this Halloween.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Well, bet you were wondering what topic we were going to cover...it isn't what I had planned for tonight, so you are going to have to wait another day or so... It has been a little challenging around here and got a little more challenging this evening. As you may remember, I had a sick bird on my hands. She had a pretty major stroke the beginning of September and lost the use of her feet (She is a Double-Yellow Head Amazon Parrot). Brings to mind the Monty Python jokes about the Parrot...but we won't go there tonight. Tonight is the Sick Bird Update.

Anyway, the bird still doesn't have the use of her feet, one is curled up, the other is open out, but there is blood flow to the feet, her toe nails have been growing at an amazing rate. I have been giving her our Stem cell enhancer products to hopefully help her to recover, and she is finally putting weight back on. So the good news is that my bird is ever so slowly healing, still can't walk, just pulls herself around. Her attitude is good, and with a parrot, you can tell a good attitude from a bad one. She sings, and does a little dance with her head (it used to be a whole body dance, but under the circumstances, all she can do is move her head around like Stevie Wonder...) and she is eating everything that is put in front of her.

The downside is that her toenails are growing at an amazing rate. The problem with that is that I have been keeping terry towels in her cage, so she has something clean and soft to move around on. Because her toenails have been growing, she is starting to get the nails tangled in the terry nap of the towels. I have been stalling cutting her nails because I wanted her to get just a little bit stronger before I stress her out cutting nails. (I don't know any animal that LIKES it's nails trimmed). Last thing I want to do is to stress her out and literally give her a heart attack. Anyway, since her nails are now so long, she is getting tangled quite a bit.

Tonight, when I come home, I first notice that there is dark stuff on her foot. Initially I thought she got poop on her foot, then I noticed her one toe nail is twisted at an odd angle. Taking a closer look at her foot, that dark stuff was not poo, but some blood (not much thankfully). So, in the sink she goes for her bath (she hates it because she sits in the water instead of having it sprinkled - I need to soak her butt for obvious reasons...) and I soak her foot as clean as I can.

What appears to have happened while I was gone was that since she cannot feel her feet, she somehow got her toenail tangled in the towel and practically ripped the whole nail out of her foot. Makes you kinda cringe...makes me still pucker... So I have spent most of this evening trying to get the bird cleaned up and somehow protect that toe from further damage. I have also removed all terry towels from her cage and have now covered it in newspaper and shredded newspaper. It is dirtier for her, but she won't get her nails stuck anymore...hopefully.

Usually a bath really tires her out, so at least she wasn't moving around too much. The problem is now that the nail is so damaged and loose, any movement whatsoever is causing her some bleeding. She does not appear to notice, which is good news, but I don't want her banging that toe around any more than necessary. So, out came the gauze pads and tape, and the Bitter Apple (a spray-on product that tastes bad so the birds won't chew what is sprayed). I managed to wrap a sort of bandage around her one toe (am considering wrapping both toes together next time...very hard to wrap one toe of a bird..) and tape it on tight enough that it won't fall off.

So far, so good, she is sitting in the cage with the big white bandage over one toe. She has not YET chewed on the bandage, which was sprayed liberally with Bitter Apple, so hopefully tomorrow she will continue to leave that bandage alone. I immobilized the whole toe and nail, hoping that it will do what it needs to do, either fall off naturally, or heal back to the toe.... She will be getting a stronger dose of our stem cell enhancer product so that her body has more adult stem cells wandering around to help her body to renew itself... and hopefully she will do a lot of resting tomorrow.

The upshot of this diatribe is that I did not get all my research completed for my "other" much-anticipated blog topic, so you will all have to wait a tad longer. With luck, the bird will be hale and hardy within the next few days (she gets really tired for about 2 days after a bath) so she should be able to spend the time healing and not picking at her bandage. I will let you know how things fare down the road... So goes our sick bird update... I think I should have been a vet...

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Last night we talked a little bit about how to stay motivated to continue posting blogs. We covered some pitfalls of blogging and how to possibly get past the excuses... Tonight we are going to continue our theme on how to keep blogging. I was never very consistent writing in my diary as a child, so am constantly amazed that this blog has been going for over a year now.

The biggest difference between blogging and writing in a diary is that when blogging, you may not be divulging your innermost secrets, you are actually talking with others. At least that is how I view blogging. It really is no different than being a reporter writing a column for a paper. The biggest difference is that usually what you print will post without any editor checking your work. Not sure if no editor is a good idea, but hey, at least you get to say what you want to say when you want to say it. The downside is that depending on discussion topic, you could easily alienate your readers. That is a risk you take though, every time you take up the proverbial pen and paper (or keyboard and computer screen...)

So, the question is, how to keep blogging when your ideas may be running thin, or you just aren't in the mood. As we touched upon last night, theoretically, you should have a backlog of written blogs already scheduled to post, but some of us don't have THAT much to say at one time of the week. One of the tricks I use to keep my blogs short, but useful is to basically bribe myself. There are things I would really rather be doing on some nights of the week. In order for me to enjoy those activities, I make myself blog before the activity takes place. That is an amazing way to inspire blogs.

If you know what you want, and see a definitive end to your blogging day, you tend to get more inspired than if you saw the whole evening stretching out in front of you with no sense of urgency. Granted, some people are not driven well by deadlines, but I have found setting specific deadlines does keep the ideas flowing better. Sort of like a synthetic procrastination. You have a deadline to make, and that could be when you do your best work.

Another trick that has been helpful, is to not over think a subject. This may sound a bit odd, but it may make more sense once explained. You have a blogging idea, you research the daylights out of that idea. You now have squished in your brain a ton of information on your topic, and suddenly you are in a brain vapor-lock. You now have too much information vying for position on your blog page. What I have found helpful is to write down what you know, or want to say, in outline form and then put the outline away for a day or two. Yeah, that doesn't help the blog you want to write tonight, but it will make a much better article tomorrow. If you give your brain some time to absorb and process all the information it obtained, you will find that if you give it a day or so, your ideas crystallize and your article will practically write itself.

There are times when you need to give your brain the opportunity to process and compartmentalize the information you have been stuffing into it. Otherwise, you may end up putting too much information in your article and losing people along the way. In today's rushed life, we only have a little time to dedicate to relaxing and/or informative reading, so it is important to provide good information, but not information overload. Keep it short, effective and sweet. You will have more fun writing, and your readers should have more fun reading.

Tomorrow, we will switch subjects, (to help prevent the aforementioned information overload) and you will just have to dial in to see what the new topic will be.

If you are looking for a second income stream are interested in starting your own home based business, our website might have something to interest you. Please let us know if you have any questions regarding earning a second income or starting your own home based business. We would love to hear from you.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Well, many of you have been watching this blog, and probably watching others blog night after night, week after week, but have you guys ever tried to write a blog? At first blush, writing a blog may be relatively easy for some, but if you write day after day (even though I have been missing days lately...) especially if you are not a particularly gifted writer (me), you will periodically run out of interesting things to discuss. Writing blogs are kind of like writing in a diary, but with an eye towards others reading what you have to say. My goal is to provide useful information for many of you and I try to provide some version of humor throughout the writing too. In light of that, let's get down to writing blogs...

This week we are going to briefly cover some common blogging issues. The first one is.....wait.....wait for it.... wwwaaaiiittt..... Procrastination.... Yup, you got that right. If you have something interesting to talk about, it is very easy to sit down and write a brief article, but if you are tired, and didn't do your homework (aka research...) sitting down in front of a blank computer screen is just as difficult as a writer with writer's block sitting down in front of a blank sheet of paper... (in the olden days of typewriters and pen and paper...). Technically, bloggers are supposed to write a series of articles and schedule them for posting going forward. That is great if you have a whole series of interesting topics to write about. The problem is if you are a procrastinator (or even an occasional procrastinator like me...). If you procrastinate, by the time you are sitting down in front of that blank screen, you are tired, and you continually find SOMETHING else to do.

There is always something else far more important than trying to determine a story line for your current blog. Again, if you have something significant to say, it is no problem to sit down and write, actually you want to write to get the information out of your head and onto the website. I find writing it so much easier when I have a solid topic, and if I have researched that topic. The problem is when my brain runs dry and I don't have a good picture of what you are interested in hearing about. The biggest problem with procrastination is that once you start writing, you may end up with a lot of blather (technical term...) and not much content for your readers.

One way to beat the procrastination problem is to keep a running list of topics you would like to cover in your blog. That does not mean that you have to write everything you have on your list, but keep a running list of ideas so when you do bump into that writer's block, you can refer to that list to shake some ideas loose. Another trick I use is to gather articles I find interesting and keep them in a file.

The concept of keeping interesting articles is not to plagiarize them, but to again spark ideas for you to research and blog about. For starters, why was the article interesting to you? What was it that caught your attention? Was it news worthy? Was it funny? If you liked it, then perhaps your readers would like to hear more on that topic or a similar topic. I recommend that when you use an article for inspiration, make note of it on the article, so that you do not accidentally duplicate your efforts a few weeks or months down the road. There may be times you want to re-visit the topic, but at least if you have made notes on the original article and any corresponding research, you know where you left off and where you can begin again.

Tomorrow we will cover another stumbling block to writing blogs and another possible way around the stumbling block.

If you are looking for an additional line of income, or are looking to build a small home based business into a means of financial freedom, check out our website. We may have something that will help you attain your dreams.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Welcome one and ALL!!! It is Monday, time for yet another installment of Fun Trivia Facts (or Fun Trivial Facts depending on your mood). As you may be aware, we choose Monday to provide you with some strange, even bizarre, and mostly fun trivia facts so that you can end your day with a smile. Perhaps you can even amaze your co-workers with your grasp of trivial knowledge, but we will leave that decision to you.

Tonight we are going to be all over the board. I thought it would be fun to cover very strange, obscure trivia this week, just for the sheer joy of it all.

This first trivial fact can be a bit disgusting if you think about it too hard, but it can be extremely funny... did you know that little more than half of the people living in the U.S. would rather fold than wad their toilet paper. Now who in their right mind will take a poll of people using the toilet, and ask how you deal with your toilet paper. What they didn't ask, is did they fold or wad the toilet paper before or AFTER the paper was used? ...HA... a new study may be created because of that question...

This tidbit is a problem I would LOVE to have: One million $1 (one dollar) bills weighs 1 ton.

Every year more people are killed by donkeys than in aircraft crashes. What a thought...

For those of you who have bosses that love to yell, provide them with this little factoid - If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough energy to heat a cup of coffee. So, if your boss likes to yell, keep your coffee cup close, they could re-heat that cup of Joe as they yell...killing two birds with one stone...

On the slang reference to a cup of coffee - Cup of Joe... do you know why a cup of coffee is referred to as a Cup of Joe? One theory is that Josephus Daniels (1862-1948) was appointed Secretary of the U.S. Navy by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913. Among his numerous reforms of the Navy was the abolition of the officers wine mess. From that time on, the strongest drink aboard Navy ships was coffee and over the years, a cup of coffee became known as "a cup of Joe".

Some do not believe this story and have an alternate answer to the derivation of "A Cup of Joe" - The World Detective (www.word-detective.com) suggests that "Joe" as slang for coffee might be derived from "Joe" as a synonym for "the common man", as in "a regular Joe". Perhaps even in reference to "GI Joe" for enlisted men. Perhaps we will never get a definitive answer to that perplexing question...

Prohibition (1920-1933) was an act of U.S. law which made the sales and consumption of alcohol illegal. Somehow, this law had the opposite effect and made the thrill of drinking booze even more delectable and profitable. Speakeasies began sprouting up everywhere (usually in underground basements). One could only enter one of these illegal joints with a secret knock or codeword. Texas Guinan, a former cowgirl star of silent movies, was the Queen of the Speakeasy ownership in NYC. She coined the sassy phrase, "Hello suckers" as she greeted her customers who would pay any amount for her booze. King of the bootlegging and racketeering in Chicago? Al Capone...

Hopefully you had as much fun reading these Fun Trivia Facts as I did finding and posting them. Have a wonderful rest of the week.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

I know I have been remiss lately on getting the Millionaire Spotlight out on Friday evenings, and I am really and truly working to improve upon that. The unfortunate case of why the Millionaire Spotlight did not appear this Friday, or even Saturday was because I was more than a little under the weather and unable to sit up long enough to do a proper job of posting. Now that I am again back in the virtual saddle, please enjoy your Millionaire Spotlight...

Tonight we are going to take a brief look at who Forbes rated as the Tenth richest man in America, Michael Bloomberg. Michael Rubens Bloomberg was born on Valentine's Day, (February 14) 1942 and currently is the Mayor of New York City. His current net worth in 2010 (when Forbes generated it's list) is $18 billion dollars. He is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg, L.P., a financial news and information services media company.

Michael Bloomberg is the grandson of Russian Jewish immigrants and was raised by middle class parents in Medford, Massachusetts. Michael Bloomberg was taught at an early age the values of hard work and civic responsibility. He worked his way through Johns Hopkins University by taking loans and working as a parking attendant during the summer months. He then received his MBA from Harvard Business School. He was ultimately hired by Salomon Brothers to work on Wall Street where he oversaw equity trading and sales and ultimately was in charge of their information systems. When he was fired from Saloman Brothers, he was provided a $10 million severance package which he then used to set up his own information systems company.

His vision of a good information systems company was one that would use emerging technology to bring transparency and efficiency to both buyers and sellers in financial securities. His first customer was Merrill Lynch where his new company, Innovative Market Systems installed 22 of the new terminals. His ultimately renamed his company Bloomberg L.P. in 1986. By 1987, this company had installed 5,000 terminals. As of 2009, Bloomberg L.P. has more than 250,000 terminals worldwide. They have subsequently expanded to include ancillary products and a radio network.

As Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg declines to receive a city salary, accepting $1.00 annually for his services. Today he still maintains a public listing in the New York City phone directory, does not reside in the official mayor's mansion but lives in his own home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He claims to be a frequent rider of the New York City Subway. His substantial net worth has allowed him to engage in many large philanthropic endeavors to include large donations to Johns Hopkins University, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Lung Foundations and the World Health Organization.

When the financial crisis begin to affect the country in 2008, Mayor Bloomberg launched a Five Borough Economic Opportunity Plan to bring New York City through the downturn as quickly as possible. This plan has helped the City of New York avoid the level of job losses that many experts had originally forecasted. He continues to strive towards making New York City the safest large city in America and launched a coalition of mayors and business leaders from across the country to work on sensible immigration reform.

Again, we have in Mayor Michael Bloomberg a person who came from humble beginnings worked hard and through dedication, seeking opportunities and smart investing became the Forbes 10th riches person in America in 2010. You can also see that Michael Bloomberg, like the other Millionaires we have Spotlighted, gives back to the community through his philanthropic activities. Hopefully, as we all grow closer to becoming millionaires we too will remember to give back to the community that helped us along our way.

With luck, we will be able to post our next Millionaire Spotlight this Friday evening...

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Tonight we are continuing our discussion on attitude and where your business is focusing. The other day we talked specifically about where your business is focusing, and started talking about how your attitude could negatively affect your small and home based business decisions. As promised, tonight we are going to cover some myths about attitude and how to overcome the feelings that trigger some bad decisions.

Is your attitude holding your business back? From the time we are born, we are conditioned by family, friends and environmental conditions. Perhaps you grew up with your parents telling you that you won't amount to much, so why bother working so hard. Perhaps your parents were saying that not because they believed it in you, but because that is what their parents taught them. Or, you may have had parents that believed the only way you would ever succeed is by going to school, studying hard, get a good job and work until it is time for you to retire. So when you strike out and start a business of your own, your parents are telling you that it is a dumb or crazy idea. You almost believe them because you have been pre-conditioned to believe the only real way to succeed is by working a regular job.

The key here is to identify the beliefs you have held for years, or even decades and determine if any of those closely held beliefs are misleading, or false. This is not an easy task, mostly because we tend to react emotionally first when one of our core beliefs is challenged. What we need to do is to stop and examine the emotional reaction and see if the reaction is in line with what caused the reaction. You also need to see if your emotional reaction is reasonable.

Some people may have been conditioned to believe that if they do not work a regular job, they will amount to nothing. Or that if they start a home based business they are doomed to failure. They may try the business, but if they fail once, they will never try again, because that one failure, in their eyes, is proof of what they have been pre-conditioned to believe. We all need to look at our own personal emotional responses to stimuli and determine if those responses are reasonable, or if perhaps we need to re-train ourselves to a new emotional response.

Most of your prospects do not make a purchase based on logic alone, they are purchasing products and services more based on emotion rather than pure logic. If you have managed to tap into their emotional triggers, then you should be able to look at your own emotional triggers and work to make the triggers positive instead of negative. By discarding the beliefs that are misleading or false and replacing them with positive beliefs, you will have a much more positive attitude and be more positive about focusing on your business decisions. The positive attitude should allow you to make more positive business decisions. If nothing else, the positive attitude will allow you to think more clearly about what decisions need to be made with regards to your small, home-based business.

We must keep in mind that even if outside events and challenges have some influence over our business situations, it is us alone who have the ultimate outcome and ultimate decision making power. Once we realize that we are in the driver's seat and that outside factors can be made to work for us instead of against us, our attitudes will be much more positive and will reflect positively in our business dealings. We then learn that our attitude is no longer holding our business back.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

When asked about his outstanding performance on the ice, Wayne Gretzky replied, "A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."

The million dollar question for any business entrepreneur is basically, where is business going to be in 1-year, 3-, 5- and hopefully 10-years out. Where is your business focusing? Where do you see your business and yourself in the the next 3 years? If things were going according to your master plan, where do you see yourself an your business in the next 5 and 10 years? As you may be struggling with business today, it is very easy to get caught up in the minutia and forget about your long-term focus.

Now is the time to review your business plan, and measure your current success against the goals you set in your business plan. Mark every success and celebrate it. As you find areas you may have fallen short in, do not berate or punish yourself, but look at the underlying reason why you did not achieve that particular goal and then find ways to improve so that during the next measurement period, you will hopefully meet or exceed your goals. You need to keep your business focused on both the long- and the short-term goals.

If you focus only on your short-term goals, you may lose sight of where you ultimately want your business to grow. It is like looking directly at your feet while you are walking down a sidewalk. Even if you use the cracks along the side of the sidewalk to guide you, you will get off track and possibly wander off the sidewalk. Even if you do stay on the walkway, you will not be moving forward very effectively. If you set your eyes ahead of your feet as you walk, you will observe obstacles and barriers to your way before you come upon them. By focusing forward (not too far) you are able to see and anticipate potential problems and begin working on a solution now instead of going head-first into the obstacle and getting tangled up in it.

Focusing your business goals is the same thing. You need to look ahead an anticipate problems and challenges. No matter how well you plan, there will be problems to deal with. That is life, don't dwell on the bad parts, focus on what you are going to do to get past those proverbial bumps in the road. Do not take a Pollyanna attitude about your business either. There will be situations that will not be easy to navigate through. There may even be situations that you cannot get past. The difference is, if you anticipated the situation, or if you saw it before it became a huge problem, you may have been able to mitigate the damage to your business.

Don't let your feelings of self-doubt, insecurity and vulnerability affect your business plan. You most likely made a good plan, hopefully you had others review it for reasonableness, so, stick with your plan, adjust to accommodate your current situation and continue moving forward with your business. Don't let any negative emotions you may be having damage your business. When we feel down or negative about the business, that is not the time to make significant business decisions because those decisions may result in financial losses, lost jobs or bankruptcies.

Tomorrow we will continue along these same lines and debunk some myths about attitude. We will provide tips on what you can do to combat these false beliefs and help your business to grow. Where is your business focusing?

Monday, October 18, 2010

Well, happy Monday to one and all. Tonight we are back on track with our Fun Trivial Facts. For those of you new to this blog, we chose Mondays to post fun trivial facts because most Mondays are pretty stressful for all but those retired folks... So, if you had a rough day at work, or a rough day at home, or even a rough day on the golf course, sit back, relax and enjoy this weeks edition of Fun Trivial Facts.

This week we are going to look at the animal kingdom for some strange facts: I am sure that many of you knew that a group of geese is called a gaggle. But, what I didn't know is that a group of geese is not ALWAYS called a gaggle. If the geese are on the ground, they are a gaggle. If you see a group of geese in the air, then they are called a skein.

The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds... Now I need to find out how long the Spruce Goose was in the air...hold on, be right back...aha, here it is...

Howard Hughes flew the Spruce Goose (really called the H-4) over a mile in less than a minute in 1947. The Spruce Goose is not a goose, but a giant wooden seaplane. We won't go into the history of the Spruce Goose tonight, but I thought it was fun to compare the flying of a giant wooden airplane to the flight of a chicken... anyway...

Now that we are talking water... a goldfish's attention span is 3 seconds. Do you think scientists actually studied how long they could keep a goldfish's attention? What did they do, make faces at the fish? Gotta wonder where some of these measurements come from sometimes...

A pregnant goldfish is called a twit. Now that means I can't call people twits...(I learned that phrase from a friend from England...) unless I really want to refer to them as pregnant goldfish...

And did you know that the common goldfish is the only animal that can see both infra-red and ultra-violet light? That would be very cool..

For those of you fascinated with belly buttons (there are some of you out there...) animals that lay eggs don't have belly buttons. That actually really does make sense because a belly button is where your umbilical cord was...

For those of you with a criminal bent...the fingerprints of a koala bear is virtually indistinguishable from those of humans...so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene. I could see where this might be a tad confusing if you lived in Australia, but anywhere else, unless the crime was committed in the koala pen, where in the world would you get your hands on koala fingerprints...?

Did you know that a duck's quack doesn't echo. Nobody has figured out why yet... perhaps we should fund a scientific study to determine why a duck's quack doesn't echo. Why...

On the flip side, a lion's roar can be heard 5 miles away... but nobody said if a lion's roar echoes...hmmm.

For those of you who are fanatical about brushing their hair with camel hair brushes, do you REALLY know what the camel hair brushes are made of??? Can you say squirrel hair??? Really, this came from "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader" Oh, oh, now I am divulging some of my sources for these fun facts...

Well there you go, that should have you entertained at least for this week. Hopefully you had as much fun reading these fun trivial facts as I did unearthing them. Have a wonderful rest of the week.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

You guys are not forgotten. I have not abandoned writing this blog, but I just wanted to post a quick note to let you know that things have been so busy and insane here I have flat-out not had time to get any blog posting done. Once things calm down a little more here, (by tomorrow or Tuesday at the absolute latest) I will get my blogs up and running again.

Just wanted to drop a quick note to let you know you have not been forgotten or abandoned. I have discovered that there are really only 24 hours in a day and I have at least 40 hours of work that must be completed in those 24 hours. I have a bunch of articles that are waiting to be posted, just have not had the time to polish and post. Again, that will occur in the next day or so.

Sorry for the delay in getting blogs out, but if someone can petition to add more hours in our day, (I don't even have the time to ask... ;-P) for me, I would be greatly appreciative.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

We are not going to have our weekly installment of trivia tonight because much bigger and much more important news is breaking as I type. The Chilean miners who have been trapped in the mine since August 2nd are finally, slowly being taken out of the mine.

I watched with bated breath as they did final testing of the capsule. I was even more tense as they lowered the first rescuer to the miners. It was awesome to see the live video feed from inside the mine, watching the rescuer exit from the capsule and watching the miners, come to greet him. I was extremely impressed with the order and discipline of the miners as they met, in person, a new person. These miners have not seen anyone else for 62 days, and I can't imagine the feelings going through them when the set their eyes on their first actual rescuer.

There was a lot of chores and tasks that I should have been doing tonight, but I made sure my priorities were in place. It is important to see people being rescued, there is far too much bad news in the news today, so it was with anticipation and great relief to see the first miner being lifted in the capsule and brought to the surface of the mine. There were tears in my eyes when I saw the first miner step outside of the capsule and be greeted by his children and wife, and the President of Chile. It was an awesome event.

I continue to watch as they lower the second rescuer to the miners, and now they have successfully brought up the second miner. This is a great day for the Chilean miners, families and for people around the world. It is great to see technology in action, helping people, and it is even better to hear the news report good things and keep the negative spin down to a minimum. This is a day of celebration, different countries came together to successfully get these miners out sooner than originally anticipated and in much better health than we all expected.

So tonight is a celebration of life, and of people helping people, regardless of what country they are from. Enjoy.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Well, Saturday we participated in an Epicurean Marketplace at the AJ's Fine Foods at 31311 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale. If you have never been to this AJ's, you are missing an awesome experience. The people there were great, the customers were wonderful and to top it all off, the weather was perfect.

For those of you who may have seen the AJ's Fine Foods, but never entered, it is a boutique gourmet market serving Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. The AJ's concept was created in 1985 with a mission to bring an upscale gourmet market experience to the Vally. Since then, they have grown to include 13 markets in the metro Phoenix area. They have specialty items, prime cuts, floral item, gifts and so much more. If you are looking for that hard-to find wine, or micro-brew beer, this is the place to go. I was drooling over the huge selection of micro-brews and would have spent every penny earned on what they had in the cooler if I had not been working the Epicurean Marketplace outside. AJ's is like no grocery store I have been in before.

The Epicurean Marketplace on Saturday was a sight to behold. They had about 50 vendors outside, many of them were fine art vendors. There were also food vendors offering many delectable items to sample. There were enough different vendors offering samples that you could easily make a meal from the samples alone. Many of the items sampled were also offered by AJ's for sale on a regular basis. It was wonderful to be able to taste these items before purchasing something I have never sampled.

The artwork showcased outside was wonderful. There were many paintings, oils, sculptures and jewelry. There was also a gentleman who hand painted bird houses. These bird houses were so beautiful that I would not leave them outside. On a few of his bird houses he had even individually shingled them with copper. These bird houses were works of art. If you have the opportunity to visit an Epicurean Marketplace, I would highly recommend that you at least wander by. There was so much to offer, and such a wide variety of art and food, that most people would have found something to delight in. We were able to offer our Waterless Cleaning technology products and StemTech, our stem cell nutritional products. We had a great opportunity to talk to many people at this event.

Next week we will be attending another Marketplace at the Basha's in Queen Creek. Again there should be a wide variety of vendors for your viewing and eating pleasure. It will be from 10-4 this Saturday, October 16th. Hopefully we will see you there. If you have questions about location, or questions about our products, please feel free to e-mail us, we would love to hear from you.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Well, it is Friday and we are back on track for our Millionaire Spotlight. Tonight we are going to look at the Forbes Ranked 18th richest American (and ranked 43rd in the world), Jeff Bezos. Each week we spotlight a millionaire and see what business points we can learn from these people. Many of the millionaires we spotlight started from humble beginnings, like you and I. The difference is in how they managed to build their fortunes. Hopefully as we continue to spotlight various Millionaires both in the United States and around the world, you will find some pearl of wisdom that will help you too to build your personal business into a million dollar industry.

Have you heard of Jeff Bezos? He is a self-made millionaire and is the founder of Amazon.com. Jeff Bezos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico January 12, 1964. When Jeff was born, his mother was still in her teens. Her marriage to his birth father lasted a little more than a year. His mother eventually remarried by the time Jeff turned 4. His stepfather was a Cuban refugee and had escaped to the U.S. alone at the age of 15. His stepfather, Mike Bezos, worked his way through the University of Albuquerque and ultimately became an engineer for Exxon. Jeff's grandparents had a 25,000 acre ranch where Jeff spent much of his summers working.

Early on, Jeff Bezos showed great mechanical aptitude. He developed many scientific interests and continuously worked on a variety of science projects. It was in high school that Jeff discovered and fell in love with computers. He entered Princeton University planning on studying physics, but ended up returning to his first love, computers. He graduated with a degree in computer science and electrical engineering.

After graduation, Jeff Bezos began work on Wall Street, where the demand for computer science was growing quickly. He remained in the financial realm, first with Bankers Trust, and then at D.E. Shaw which specialized in applications of computer science to the stock market. It was at D.E. Shaw where in the spring of 1994 Jeff discovered that Internet usage was increasing by 2,300 percent a year. He saw a new opportunity for business and immediately began considering possibilities. As he searched various mail order companies, he found that books had no comprehensive mail order catalog. Since a comprehensive book catalog was never economically feasible to mail, the Internet became a perfect tool. A vast book database could be maintained, and a limitless number of people could access that book database. That was the beginning of the concept of Amazon.com.

After more research with booksellers to learn everything he could about the book business, Jeff and his wife decided to go into business for themselves and compile a comprehensive book catalog. He and his wife decided to name the new company Amazon, for the seemingly endless South American river with numberless branches. They set up their new business in a 2-bedroom home with computers on tables made from door blanks. July 16, 1995 Jeff Bezos opened Amazon.com to the world. Within 30 days, with no actual advertising, Amazon had sold books in all 50 states and 45 foreign countries. By September of that year, it had sales of $20,000 a week.

In order to continue growth, Jeff increased his market share as quickly as possible, at the expense of initial profits. He wanted to be more than "Earth's biggest bookstore" and really wanted to be "Earth's biggest anything store". Throughout this growth, Jeff Bezos focused on his 6 core values - customer obsession, ownership, bias for action, frugality, high hiring bar and innovation. His company vision was to be "the world's most customer-centric company. The place where people come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online."

Jeff's focus on his Six Core Values is something we can all apply to our own businesses. These are not difficult concepts, and implemented honestly and consistently will help you to build and grow your home based business too. As you can see, Jeff is always looking for more innovations to provide his customers an even better buying experience. Amazon.com has become a household name. Another wise action that Jeff Bezos took was to reinvest in his company. Instead of spending the early company profits on personal "toys", Jeff reinvested those profits back into his company to continue to grow and develop it. We can all take a page from Jeff's playbook and most likely make our own businesses more profitable also.

Good luck in continuing to grow your small or home based business. Hopefully these Millionaire Spotlights will provide some spark of innovation, or inspiration for you to move your business to the next level.

If you are looking for some second income opportunities and have no idea what you might want to do, our website might be of some assistance. Please feel free to e-mail us with any of your questions. We would love to hear from you.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Did you know that there are several stem cell therapies that are currently being used routinely to treat some diseases? I would like to talk about the stem cell therapy in use now and contrast that with our Stem Cell Nutritional supplements by Stemtech.

There are stem cell therapies that are used regularly now, both for pets and for people. The people-type therapies include adult stem cell transplant from bone marrow stem cells; from peripheral blood stem cells and there is umbilical cord blood stem cell transplants The most common type of stem cell therapy is the bone marrow transplant, which is used to treat leukemia and other types of cancer as well as various blood disorders. These treatments can be very expensive (especially for those without insurance coverage) and can be uncomfortable.

A bone marrow transplant requires that the patient's bone marrow stem cells are replaced with those from a healthy, matching donor. All of the patient's existing bone marrow is killed using a combination of chemotherapy and radiation, then a sample of the donor's bone marrow (with healthy adult stem cells) is introduced into the patient's blood stream. A successful transplant would mean that the adult stem cells that were introduced migrate into the patient's bone marrow and then begins producing new, healthy adult stem cells to replace the ones that were killed off.

This type of therapy is extreme and necessary in certain situations. For those of us who may not have extreme medical conditions requiring total bone marrow transplantation, we have a stem cell nutritional product that allows your own body to work on healing itself. Our flagship product, StemEnhance, allows your body to release about 25% more adult stem cells from your bone marrow into your blood stream. This increase in adult stem cells allows your body to heal itself better because those migrating adult stem cells are essentially easier to access and utilize. Without going through a transplant situation, your body now has more adult stem cells in the blood stream, which means it can heal areas faster. The best thing about StemEnhance is that it is a completely natural product and does not introduce anything artificial into your system. All StemEnhance does is allow your body to release more adult stem cells into the blood stream.

Our next product, StemFlo, helps to keep your blood flowing better throughout your body. By having improved circulation, your body is better able to carry the adult stem cells to the areas in need. Our last and newest product, ST-5, enhances the migration of your adult stem cells into the cells that are in need. The best part about ST-5 is that it is a powder (all natural) that can be mixed into almost any liquid and then consumed. It

Supports stem cells’ ability to migrate

Balanced, Sustained energy

Bio-available vitamins & minerals

Appetite-satisfying protein & fiber

Supports healthy body-fat & muscle(low in calories)

All three of these products combine to provide the tools for your body to renew itself and will reduce your need for any additional vitamin supplements. We also have adult stem cell products for Dogs and Horses too. Since all of the products are natural, there should be minimal negative reactions to them.

Taking StemEnhance, StemFlo and ST-5, or any combination, will help your body to heal itself and work on staying healthier overall. If you have any questions regarding these products or our Pet products, please feel free to contact us through e-mail. Our website also has a large amount of information and Frequently Asked Questions that is also very useful.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

While searching for an interesting topic for tonight's blog, I came across a great question from Plinky.com. Tonight I am going to answer the question, what's your greatest achievement? How many of us can actually answer that question? There are so many small achievements to be proud of, but to find one that you would classify your 'greatest", well that takes some serious thought.My greatest achievement to date is having started Hawgwash, LLC and kept it running successfully for over 4 years. We have beaten the odds for new start-up companies so far. This January Hawgwash, LLC will be 5 years old. This is a huge achievement, especially since we have had a declining economy for most of those 5 years. (no the decline in the economy is not because we started Hawgwash, LLC)

I had been a corporate person for the majority of my adult life, working my way up from general sales, into accounting and finance. It had been tough, slowly climbing from rung to rung, long hours, minimal pay increases, but with time I succeeded in the corporate world. The difference was that I was still working for someone else, helping them to get rich. Four and a half years ago, with help from Steve, I left the corporate world to start Hawgwash, LLC.

We now travel around the country, from various shows (Motorcycle Rallies, Car rallies, RV Rallies) meeting the neatest people and promoting our products ad services. When we first started Hawgwash, LLC, we had a pretty basic business plan and a limited product offering. We were the Waterless Cleaning people. We would detail cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats and RV. Basically any vehicle you had, if it had decent paint on it, we would clean it for you.

As the economy started changing, we started adjusting our marketing strategy and expanding our product line. Our initial products went from the waterless cleaning items, to towels and additional cleaning supplies. At the suggestion of a good vendor friend of ours, we began carrying other items not specifically related to waterless cleaning techonolgy. This way, if we were in an area where they could care less about keeping the paint of their vehicle clean, we had other product offerings to entice customers.

We continued experimenting with other product offerings and removed products that did not produce solid results. As time goes on, we will continue to expand our products and services, always on the lookout to provide the best of the best for our customers. This philosophy has served us well over the years and we will continue to review products and services to be sure we are providing the best value for our customers

Because of our constant search, we have changed our goal of Hawgwash, LLC. We are not just the waterless people anymore, but are now Second Income Specialists. We offer several small business opportunities for people looking for a second or additional income stream. We have business offerings in the legal, nutritional and waterless technology fields. We are always open for questions and are more than willing to help guide people to find an opportunity that best suits their needs, even if it is an opportunity that we do not work with.

If you are interested in what we have to offer, or have questions, please check out our website at www.hawgwash.net or feel free to e-mail us. We welcome your comments and suggestions. As you can see, after almost 5 years, I am still very proud of this business of ours, Hawgwash, LLC. I consider it my greatest achievement to date.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Wow, we had some serious humdinger storms roll through the Phoenix area today. The great news is that these storms, though very strong, only lasted no more than an hour each. Granted, there was a good amount of destruction left behind, but think of how much worse it would have been if they lasted longer than the hour (and I am being generous, the worst of the storm was probably only about 20 minutes...). We have had a great storm in Phoenix today.

This afternoon's storm had really high winds, golf ball sized hail in some places (luckily not where I was) and loads of rain. There is good and bad about a lot of rain coming down. Since we have not had that much rain to saturate the ground, and it has been so hot, a lot of the water did not soak into the ground, but just ran off and made a mess of the roadways. This afternoon's storm was bad enough to ground all airplanes at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. The high winds also knocked down 19 power poles, one of which fell across a freeway, which subsequently stopped traffic in both directions (you think?).

If you couldn't guess, I love storms, just not all the time. That is why I get so excited about storms out here in Phoenix. It seems like we get about 350 days of sunshine, so when a storm rolls through, it is an exciting event. Right now I am still listening to the diminishing sound of thunder. I cannot see any more lightning strikes, but occasionally the sky lights up in the distance. Our monsoon season ended a few weeks back, so for me, this is a major treat.

Usually we are on the road, so I never get to witness the awesome monsoon storms here in the Phoenix valley. This was like the monsoons I remembered from years ago (when I was working a regular JOB). It is a major treat to be able to witness the power of these storms. It gives you new appreciation for the forces of nature. The winds blew so hard that the rain was going sideways, and upwards again when it swirled on the patio. The temperatures dropped at least 20 degrees, to the point where it was tie to consider putting on a sweater. That by itself gives cause to celebrate, it has been in the triple digits up to about 2 days ago. Having it cool enough to want a sweater is a major treat.

Anyway, now that the rain is gone, the winds have died down and the lightning has moved off, it is time to wander outside and get a whiff of what the desert smells like after a cleansing rain like we just had. You can smell the creosote bushes (a fresh, tangy scent) and nothing smells dusty anymore. An additional advantage of a rain storm in the desert is that once it is over, the water evaporates quickly so mold does not have time to form. Great for those of us with allergies, no mold to concern ourselves with.

Hopefully you all have had a peaceful evening. Mine was exciting, but in a very good way. I will now be stepping outside to enjoy the scents of a clean desert and to watch for the next storm cell that may be heading my way. Love those storms in Phoenix.

Monday, October 4, 2010

How many of you tie your shoes anymore? There is now Velcro in place of shoe laces, or just slip-on shoes, or flip-flops. Did you know the name for that little plastic thing at the end of your shoe laces? Those plastic things are called aglets. Wow, that is pretty useless info...

I saw this on one of those TV shows, debunking common myths... did you know why the whip makes a cracking sound? That sound occurs because the tip of the whip moves faster than the speed of sound. I knew it hurt when I got hit by the tip of a whip. At least now I know why I couldn't get out of the way fast enough, I don't move faster than the speed of sound...

It rained here in Phoenix today. I could not find my umbrella and finally realized why...the average life span of an umbrella is under 2 years. I couldn't find my umbrella because it died years ago... All I need to do now is to find the skeleton of the umbrella, that seems appropriate in the Arizona desert...

Now for fun animal facts - did you know a donkey will sink in quick sand while a mule will not. Wonder what the science behind that is? Now all I need to do is to find some quick sand and try this out...yeah, right, in Arizona??? HA!!

We now have proof that drinking tea can be dangerous to your health - 4,000 people are injured by tea pots every year. Watch out for attack tea pots...

Did you know the average speed of Heinz ketchup leaving the bottle is 25 miles PER YEAR? I thought it was slow..

Do you know who the first non-human to win an Oscar was? Mickey Mouse.

For those of you who always wondered (and I know a few who tried) it takes four hours to hard boil an ostrich egg.

And to continue with the fowl comments... (pun intended) - the left leg of a chicken is more tender than the right.

Chickens cannot swallow while they are upside down. As a matter of fact, I probably can't swallow very well while upside down either...

Did you know there are more chickens in the world than people?

And lastly, for this week, to tie in from our Millionaire Spotlight last night, did you know that there are only 18 countries richer than Bill Gates?

That's all for Trivial facts this week. Hopefully these were as much fun for you as they were for me.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Tonight we are going to take a brief look at who Warren Buffett is and why he is in our Millionaire Spotlight. I am sure many of you have heard of Warren Buffett, his name has been in the news for years, you may have heard some of his comments on the economy and investing. Since he is so often quoted and watched in the news, I thought it would be beneficial to find out more about who Warren Buffett is and why he is so often quoted.

Warren Edward Buffett is an American investor, industrialist and philanthropist. He is one of the most successful investors in the world and is currently ranked the third richest person in the world by Forbes in 2010, after Carlos Slim Helu, and Bill Gates. Warren Buffett is called the "Oracle of Omaha" and is well known for his value investing philosophy and for his personal frugality. As a child, Warren Buffett was interested in making and saving money. He used to go door to door selling gum, Coca-Cola or magazines. He worked in his grandfather's grocery store for some time. While in high school, Buffett and a friend pooled their money to purchase3 a used pinball machine which they they put in a local barber shop. Within a few months, they purchased several more pinball machines and placed those in different barber shops.

By 1962, Warren Buffett officially became a millionaire, mainly due to his partnerships which had an excess of $7,178,500 (of which $1.025 million belonged to him). Is is currently ranked second richest man in the United States after donating billions of dollars to charity in 2009. His net work is up to $47 billion. What is interesting is that his children will not inherit a significant amount of his wealth. He wants to provide just enough for his kids so that they feel they could do anything, but not too much so that they don't do anything. Warren Buffett has been very wise in his investing and does not invest unless he has researched the opportunity. He does take calculated risks, but again, not unless he has carefully studies the particular company's management along with the company's Income Statement and Balance Sheet. It is not the numbers alone that interest Warren Buffett.

The lessons with Warren Buffett are very similar to what we have seen with other millionaires; even though you earn a lot of money, it is not necessary to spend all of it. The key to becoming wealthy is to earn money, save most of it and reinvest it again to continue building profits and income. In 1957 he purchased a 5-bedroom stucco home for $31,500 in 1957 and still lives there today.

If you are looking for second income opportunities in order to further grow your savings, we may have something that will work well for you. After reviewing our website, please feel free to e-mail us with any questions regarding the income opportunities listed. Hopefully you enjoyed this week's Millionaire spotlight. If you are interested in learning more about Warren Buffett (there is a lot of information that cannot be easily encapsulated here), there is a wealth of information and biographies on the Internet.